posted Sept. 12 -

Even though it appears Hurricane Ike will strike the upper Texas Gulf Coast sometime Friday or Saturday, Bee County residents should continue to prepare for high winds and heavy rain.

That’s the message Bee County Emergency Management Coordinator David Morgan is sharing with the news media.

“Bee County is not out of danger yet,” he announced Thursday morning. “Bee County is still in the danger zone. The hurricane’s current track puts its landfall in the Bay City-Galveston Bay area, but that means Bee County could still receive tropical storm force winds, heavy winds and flooding of low areas.”

The National Weather Service has issued a hurricane watch from Baffin Bay south of Corpus Christi to Morgan City, La.

As of 10 a.m. Thursday, the center of Hurricane Ike was located some 580 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi and 470 east-southeast of Galveston. Ike is traveling north-northeast at about 7 miles per hour.

At that rate and on that track, Ike may strike the mid- to upper-Texas Gulf Coast late Friday night or early Saturday morning as a low category 3 or high category 2 hurricane, according to the National Weather Service.

If Ike slams into the Galveston Bay area, Bee County could feel its impact, Morgan said.

Morgan said tropical storm force winds extend outwards of 250 miles from a hurricane’s eye. Bay City is about 200 miles away from Bee County, he noted.

Tropical storm force winds can reach upwards of 74 miles per hour.

If the hurricane makes landfall south of Bay City, located west of Matagorda Bay, then Bee County could receive hurricane force winds of over 75 miles per hour.

“It’s really still too early to tell where this storm is going to make landfall,” Morgan said. “If it makes landfall south of Matagorda Bay, Bee County could see hurricane force winds and heavy, heavy rains.”

He encouraged Bee County residents to continue to make necessary preparations for the storm, including boarding up windows and collecting all the items they will need to get along without power, water or sewer.

Morgan said emergency shelters will be available for local residents if needed.

Non-residents who are fleeing the storm will be sent to San Antonio for shelter, he said.

“Beeville is not a sheltering community,” he said. “Anyone coming to Bee County expecting to find shelter will be sent elsewhere.”

Morgan said his staff at the Emergency Operations Center are presently working on drafting a list of names of people with special needs who will require transportation if the need arises.

He said many of those people are already listed with the statewide 211 emergency information and shelter search hotline.

“We’ve already collected a lot of names of people with special needs — the elderly, the disabled or people with medical needs — and we’ve told them we will contact them if we feel we need to transport them out of the area,” Morgan explained. “We’re still taking names and compiling our list.”

Anyone with special needs is encouraged to call Morgan or his volunteer staff at 362-3249 or 362-3254. The 211 hotline is no longer operating.

He said the EOC staff members are also organizing people and equipment to help residents who live in low-lying areas vulnerable to flooding.

Because the hurricane appears to be taking a northerly track, Morgan warned law enforcement personnel to expect plenty of traffic on Highway 59 south through Beeville throughout Thursday and Friday.

He said traffic will also be heavy on Highway 202 from Refugio and U.S. Highway 181 north from Sinton as people from coastal communities continue to evacuate.

Bee County Chief Deputy Alden Southmayd told Morgan that traffic was heavy on U.S. Highway 181 north on Wednesday night.

Hundreds of buses, vans and EMS units stationed at Chase Field and the Bee County Expo Center have been dispatched to the north, Morgan said.

“At this point, we are on our own,” he said.

President George Bush declared the Gulf Coast of Texas a disaster area on Wednesday night, which means communities, county governments and residents are eligible for federal disaster assistance if need be, Morgan said.

Morgan also urged Bee County residents to stock up on food and fuel before travelers from out of town snap up all the supplies. He noted that fuel costs have increased at least 10 cents from Tuesday to Thursday at some gas stations.

“What a difference 12 hours makes,” Morgan told his staff Thursday morning, referring to the hurricane’s abrupt change in course since Wednesday. “And what a difference 12 hours can make. We’re not going to relax today. We are going to continue to prepare for the worst. This is still a very big and very dangerous storm and it could still have a very serious impact on Bee County.”